Aus Open: Raonic eases past Troicky

Milos Raonic, with the trauma of the Canadian high school shooting weighing heavily on his mind, produced a fighting win in straight sets over Viktor Troicki to reach the fourth round of Australian Open on Saturday.

Published : Jan 23, 2016 10:59 IST , Melbourne

Milos Raonic acknowledges the crowd after his third round victory over Victor Troicky.
Milos Raonic acknowledges the crowd after his third round victory over Victor Troicky.
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Milos Raonic acknowledges the crowd after his third round victory over Victor Troicky.

Milos Raonic, with the trauma of the Canadian high school shooting weighing heavily on his mind, produced a fighting win over Viktor Troicki to reach the fourth round of Australian Open on Saturday. The Canadian power server, seeded 13, fought back from an early break in the final set before clinching a 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 win over the 21st-seeded Serb in one hour, 46 minutes on Margaret Court Arena.

Afterwards, Raonic was close to tears as he dedicated the win to the remote Saskatchewan community where four people were killed in a school shooting on Friday. "I want to take a moment and give thoughts to that community, the families, the students and the school affected and we wish you all the best," he told the crowd.

"Today's victory was for that community and a quick recovery. All of Canada, and I'm sure the world, is behind you," Raonic said, before quickly departing the court.

Raonic, coached by former world number one Carlos Moya, will next face either 2014 winner Stan Wawrinka or Czech Lukas Rosol. The Canadian rolled through the opening two sets for the loss of five games but struck some resistance early in the final set when he was broken in the second game.

But Raonic fought back with breaks in the seventh and ninth games before completing victory over Troicki, who beat Grigor Dimitrov in last week's final of the Sydney International. Raonic has yet to drop a set in this year's Open and comes into the year's opening Grand Slam a winner over Roger Federer in the final of the Brisbane International earlier this month.

The Canadian, who broke Troicki's serve five times and lost his own booming service just once, reached the quarterfinals of last year's Australian Open where he lost to eventual winner Novak Djokovic.

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